A history of the Sikhs, from the origin of the nation to the battles of the Sutlej.

20

HISTORY OF THE SIKHS

CHAP. II

barbarians: they dispersed Sacae,' they enrolled Getae
among their most famous tribes,2 and they made others
serve as their valiant defenders.3 India afterwards checked
the victorious career of Islam, but she could not wholly
resist the fierce enthusiasm of the Turkoman hordes; she
The became one of the most splendid ot Muhammadan empires,
hadan- and the character of the Hindu mind has been permanently
altered by the genius of the Arabian prophet. The wellbeing of India's industrious millions is now linked with the
The Chris- fate of the foremost nation of the West, and the representatians. tives of Judaean faith and Roman polity will long wage
a war of principles with the speculative Brahman, the
authoritative Mulla, and the hardy believing Sikh.
BrThmran- The Brahmans and their valiant Kshattriyas had a long
ism strugglingwith and arduous contest with that ancient faith of India,
Buddhism which, as successively modified, became famous as Budbecomes
elaborated. dhism.4 When Manu wrote, perhaps nine centuries before
1 Vikramaj it derived his title of Sakari from his exploits against the
Sacae (Sakae). The race is still perhaps preserved pure in the wilds of
Tartary, between Yarkand and the Mansarawar Lake, where the
Sokpos called Kelmaks (Calmucs) by the Muhammadans, continue
to be dreaded by the people of Tibet. [A dread effectually removed
by the systematic conquest of Eastern Turkestan by the Chinese
during the nineteenth century.-ED.]
2 The Getae are referred to as the same with the ancient Chinese
Yuechi and the modern Jats, but their identity is as yet, perhaps,
rather a reasonable conclusion than a logical or critical deduction.
3 The four Agnikula tribes of Kshattriyas or Rajputs are here
alluded to, viz. the Chohans, Solunkees, Powars (or Prumars), and
the Purihars. The unnamed progenitors of these races seem clearly
to have been invaders who sided with the Brahmans in their warfare,
partly with the old Kshattriyas, partly with increasing schismatics,
and partly with invading Graeco-Bactrians, and whose warlike merit,
as well as timely aid and subsequent conformity, got them enrolled
as ' fireborn', in contradistinction to the solar and lunar families.
The Agnikulas are now mainly found in the tract of country extending
from Ujjain to Rewah near Benares, and Mount Abu is asserted to be
the place of their miraculous birth or appearance. Vikramajit, the
champion of Brahmanism, was a Powar according to the common
accounts.
4 The relative priority of Brahmanism and Buddhism continues
to be argued and disputed among the learned. The wide diffusion at
one period of Buddhism in India is as certain as the later predominance
of Brahmanism, but the truth seems to be that they are of independent origin, and that they existed for a long time contemporaneously;